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Initial flight is fright for eaglet

A baby bald eagle, nicknamed "Roy," causes a scare by dropping onto a driveway. Neighbors rally for his rescue.

By THERESA BLACKWELL
Published March 26, 2006

CLEARWATER - Barely three months into the world, baby bald eagles in Pinellas County and across Florida are stretching their wings, jumping up and down, and taking that first plunge into thin air.

For some, it goes better than for others.

At a bald eagles' nest in the Grey Oaks subdivision in North Pinellas on Thursday, an eaglet may have taken a premature flight into the night. It landed on the driveway on Grey Oaks Boulevard, to the surprise of the couple who live there.

Two bald eagles that nest in the subdivision have been one of the most productive pairs in Florida. They returned last fall to a pine tree, where they were raising two eaglets.

Eagle watcher Barb Walker of East Lake and the eagles' Grey Oaks neighbors have been watching. And developer Roy E. Shaffer Jr. has been watching "Roy and Royola," as he calls the eaglets, for one last nesting season before cancer takes him. Shaffer donated the nine acres around the nest to to the Morton Plant Mease Foundation to protect it.

When Dave and Patti Schuman returned from dinner Thursday, they found a bird near their front porch and, after some debate, decided it must be one of the two eaglets.

"We were just so heartbroken for it last night," Patti Schuman said Friday. "As big as it was, with the talons and the beak, it was still a baby."

The Schumans called Walker, and they tried to get wildlife officials on the phone. When they were unsuccessful, they called the Humane Society of North Pinellas. Walker said they feared that a predator like a bobcat might take the young bird during the night.

The Humane Society picked up the bird and kept it overnight, feeding it a couple of catfish filets. Executive director Rick Chaboudy consulted with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Friday morning, and the agency sent someone to check the bird over and return it to the nest if it was not injured.

Walker, the Schumans and other neighbors watched Friday from the black iron fence surrounding the eagle's habitat, waiting for officials to return the eaglet to the nest. As if on cue, both eagle parents returned a few minutes before the eaglet arrived. About 2 p.m., Doug Harbert, an environmental specialist for Pinellas County, and Steve Peacock, vice president for environmental services for Florida Design Consultants of New Port Richey, arrived with the young eagle.

They carried it into the nesting area, released it and left. Peacock called Candace Martino at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife office in Jacksonville to report.

"The deal's all done," Peacock said. "Real good news: He was in better shape than I had predicted."

The bird probably was the subordinate male, a smaller eaglet born after its sibling, he said. He predicted the adults would spot the baby and coax him to a perch before nightfall.

"So I think he was successfully reintroduced," Peacock said.

He said it may be several days before the eaglet makes it all the way back to the nest.

"If he's scared of that big sister, he may never go back in the nest," Peacock said. "And the parents will feed it on another branch."

Though the Grey Oaks eaglet was removed to be checked out before it was returned to the nesting area, Peacock said he generally does not advise taking eagles away from their parents.

"It's no different than a baby mockingbird," he said. "They eventually will link up with their parents."

If the eaglet had been left alone, he said, its parents would have let it recover from the trauma of flight then would have brought it food and coaxed it up off the ground for the night.

Martino, of the Fish and Wildlife Service, also cautioned that a permit is needed to transport bald eagles.

"In instances like this," she said, "it is not a good idea to go in and grab the bird and take it somewhere."

[Last modified March 26, 2006, 00:25:14]